Pop star Lorde swept the board at the New Zealand Music Awards on Thursday (20Nov14) by scooping six prizes.
The Royals hitmaker brought her family along to the ceremony in their native Auckland to watch as she managed to top the four wins she scored last year (13). She picked up prizes for Album of the Year, Single of the Year for Team, Best Female Solo Artist, Best Pop Album, Highest Selling Single for Royals and the International Achievement Award.
Lorde brought her brother and sister onstage as she accepted an award and during a subsequent speech she said, "I feel like I'm going to cry... Holy c**p, thank you. It seems crazy to think it's been only a year since I was sat right there, opening the music awards."
The pop star was only beaten in one category - the People's Choice Award, which went to singer Stan Walker. Walker picked up a further award while other winners included hip-hop star David Dallas, musical trio Sol3 Mio and alternative rock group The Naked and Famous.

Getty Images/Slaven Vlasic
Comedian Tracy Morgan has spoken out for the first time after he was seriously injured in a multi-car pile up in New Jersey to assure fans he is feeling "strong".
The 30 Rock star was hospitalised in a critical condition on 7 June (14) when a Wal-Mart truck slammed into the back of a limousine he was travelling in, killing his mentor and colleague James 'Jimmy Mack' McNair. Morgan, 45, was released from a rehabilitation centre last week (ends11Jul14) and has since returned to his New Jersey home, where he will continue his recovery for injuries including a broken leg, a broken nose and several broken ribs.
On Monday (14Jul14), he was pictured back on his feet with the help of a walker as he was helped into a waiting car outside his house. Asked how he was feeling, he told photographers, "I'm OK. I feel strong. Love you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it."
Wal-Mart driver Kevin Roper stands accused causing the multi-vehicle accident after allegedly falling asleep at the wheel of his truck. Morgan, his assistant Jeffrey Millea and comedian Ardie Fuqua, who were also injured in the crash, filed suit against bosses at the U.S. superstore on Thursday (10Jul14), accusing them of negligence, alleging company executives should have known Roper had been awake for more than 24 hours and that his drive from his home in Georgia to work in Delaware was "unreasonable". Roper denies charges of vehicular homicide and assault by auto.

Dwayne Johnson thanked the crew of Fast & Furious 7 for helping him through the emotional shoot as filming on the new movie drew to a close this week (beg30Jun14). The seventh installment in the action franchise was thrown into jeopardy last year (13) after lead actor Paul Walker died in a car crash during a break from filming.
The shoot later resumed without Walker, and the late actor's brothers were drafted in to act as doubles for the star in subsequent scenes.
Filming finally came to an end this week, and Johnson, who appeared alongside Walker in the series, marked the moment by paying tribute to the crew members who worked so hard to make the movie happen.
He shared a picture of himself posing with a large group of workers, throwing their hands up in the air and cheering, against a blue screen background on the set.
Johnson, formally known by his wrestling name The Rock, posted the picture on Instagram.com with the message, "My last day of Fast & Furious... I'm truly touched by the farewell love my film crew has shown me. It's been an honour to work with such an incredibly hard working and brilliant crew. (A crew who's had to practice great restraint daily on this production). They may not be household names, but they'll ALWAYS be stars in my book. With great love and respect to all of you... see ya down the yellow brick road. Another place. Another time. #ThankUForAllYourWork - Rock (sic)."

HBO
We have two episodes left to go in this season of Girls, which means everyone's story is beginning to wind down to a conclusive point. This week solidifies the immediate future for Hannah and Adam (and not in a particularly promising way), and tosses Jessa a little bit closer to rock bottom.
The Hannah and Adam Story
Two weeks back, we compared the Hannah-Adam arc of Season 3 to the romantic story of Spike Jonze's Her. Not a particularly insightful analogy, since Her is as all-encompassing as a movie about love and relationships can get, but our predictions are validated with the ultimate conclusion of the latest episode, "Role Play." Hannah goes out drinking (excessively) with work friends, returning up the next morning to the shock that Adam was too enveloped by his play to even worry about what might have happened to her. All this plus a dismissive morning attitude and his apparent embarrassment when she showed up to watch his rehearsal equates to Hannah deciding to try and "spice things up" between them, instituting an elaborate role play scenario in which she gets back into touch with the dark patterns a Hannah and Adam of yore used to enjoy.
But things run afoul when Adam is offended and put off by the attempt, perhaps using the ordeal as a vehicle to access feelings he seems to have been entertaining for a while: he wants out. At least temporarily. As such, validating not just our predictions but Hannah's worries from earlier this season, Adam says he needs time apart from her to devote himself to his art, opting to stay with Ray (Ray! That means he'll be back!) for a while.
We don't expect Hannah and Adam to make it to the end of the season, partially because of this new turn and partially because every season premiere sees her waking in bed with a different partner (first Marnie, then Elijah, then Adam... who's next?).
The Jessa Situation (with a bit of Shoshanna sprinkled in)
Jessa has not come very far from where we found her at the beginning of this season — although she cleaned up for a while, she never fully embraced the problematic nature of her addiction and her approach to life in general. This week, the unlikely voice of reason that Shoshanna has become confronts Jessa and Jasper (Richard E. Grant) by surprising the two with a visit from the latter's daughter Dot (an allergenic Felicity Jones).
Jasper all but breaks down, at first resisting his daughter's pleas for affection but gradually coming to her (and his own) defense when Jessa accosts the both of them. The conclusion of the union sees Jessa without even the man who fostered her voyage back into drugs, with her substance abuse presenting itself as less of a problem than her addiction to pushing people away.
And while we leave Jessa in a dark place at the end of the episode, it is perhaps the depths to which she needed to fall in order to climb back up. She finally accepts her aloneness — she has to — now that even her cousin, who once idolized her above all else, has seen her for her ugliness.
The Black Hole of Marnie
I'm a member of the very sparse Marnie camp, but her turn this week seems particularly void of interest. She might become Soojin's (Greta Lee) assistant at an art gallery, despite her feelings that such work is demeaning? More importantly, Marnie is clearly harboring feelings for Adam's pal and fellow actor, the spirit walker Desi (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), but only as such that she really wants him to be attracted to her, as Marnie has identified herself as of value only when she is attracting men. Desi obviously cares for Marnie in his encouragement of her song-writing and creativity, but he is devoted to his girlfriend. Sadly, she takes this as a rejection and spirals deeper into her pit of despair.
So there we are. Everyone feeling happy?
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Universal via Everett Collection
By the time Thursdays roll around, you're probably exhausted from a long week and looking for something familiar and comforting to help you forget about everything that's stressing you out. If the Internet is any indication, the best cure for this kind of fatigue is nostalgia, and the warmer and fuzzier it makes you feel, the better. This week's Netflix Hand-Picked Flix recommendation for Throwback Thursday is Cry-Baby.
After Johnny Depp left 21 Jump Street, but before he appeared in every Tim Burton movie ever made, he starred as the ultimate rock 'n' roll-singing, hip-swivelling, drag-racing bad boy in John Waters 1990 film Cry-Baby. A parody and homage to films of 1950s, it centers around "square" goodie two-shoes Alison (Amy Locane), who falls hard for Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker (Depp), who brings all kinds of trouble with him when he and his "drape" friends arrive in her quaint suburban town. Like all of Waters' work, it's a weird, over-the-top film filled with weird, over-the-top characters, but underneath the vintage aesthetic and the hilarious satire, there's a film with a lot of heart and a message about acceptance that's not trite or cloying. If Waters' twisted sense of humor and Depp's early days as a heartthrob don't win you over, Cry-Baby's insanely catchy, Elvis-esque rockabilly score is sure to do the trick. Plus, the film itself is a throwback, which makes it the perfect thing to watch while you decide which adorable baby picture of yourself to upload to Instagram.
You can stream Cry-Baby on Netflix, and make sure to check back tomorrow for our recommendations for the perfect Freaky Friday film.
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Warner Bros via Everett Collection
Last week, we took a look at each of the awards circuits that have announced their winning picks for 2013, calculating just how good an indicator each one might be at predicting the Academy Awards top prize. Unsurprisingly, 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle were the most common titles to take awards from venues like the Golden Globes, New York Film Critics Circle, Critics Choice Awards, and others. With the organizations carrying a variety of insight, statistically speaking, into what will be the Oscars' big winner, we named 12 Years our Most Likely to Succeed at the 86th Annual Academy Awards... but that was before today's news. See, this morning gave us the winner of the Director's Guild of America Awards — historically, the best indicator of the Best Picture Oscar with a 90% consistency over the past 10 years and an 81% consistency overall — and it is third party candidate Gravity.
Alfonso Cuaron's blockbuster has snagged the DGA, putting it in the company of Argo, The Artist, The King's Speech, The Hurt Locker, and many other features that went on to win Best Picture. In fact, the last movie to take the DGA but lose out on the top Oscar would be Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a rarity as well for winning the Best Director Oscar but not Best Picture. Averaged with the precognitive capabilities of the Producers Guild of America (middling) and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (dismal) — in which Gravity tied as winner with 12 Years and Her, respectively — the space-set thriller is about even with Steve McQueen's slavery epic in its chances to take home the Oscar.
Of course, math can only take you so far (despite what they tried to drill into your heads in grade school). The separating factor, come Academy season, will be that indefinable quality that makes something an "Oscar movie." Not necessarily the best movie, but the one most palatable to the Academy's appetite. Gravity and 12 Years a Slave are both terrific films, but the latter has a few points on its side. Although they might share the DGA with Gravity, movies like Argo, The King's Speech, The Hurt Locker, Slumdog Millionaire, Million Dollar Baby, et al have far more in common with 12 Years a Slave: they're tales of history, adversity, injustice, human ugliness and human perseverence. Stories very much grounded on this Earth... something that Gravity, quite literally, might not be considered (at least by some).
But we applaud the DGA for recognizing Cuaron's movie, and its other deserving winners (with special notice for the finales of Breaking Bad and 30 Rock). Peruse the winners list below!
The Directors Guild of America Awards
Feature FilmWinner: GravityNominees: 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, The Wolf of Wall Street
DocumentaryWinner: Cutie and the BoxerNominees: The Act of Killing, The Crash Wheel, The Square, Stories We Tell
Dramatic SeriesWinner: Breaking Bad: "Felina"Nominees: Breaking Bad: "Blood Money," Game of Thrones: "The Rains of Castamere," Homeland: "The Star," House of Cards: "Chapter 1"
Comedy SeriesWinner: 30 Rock: "Hogcock!/Last Lunch"Nominees: The Big Bang Theory: "The Hofstadter Insufficiency," The Big Bang Theory: "The Love Spell Potential," Modern Family: "My Hero," Modern Family: "The Old Man &amp; the Tree"
TV Movie/MiniseriesWinner: Behind the CandelabraNominees: Killing Kennedy, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, Phil Spector, The Sound of Music Live!
Variety/Talk/News/Sports ProgrammingWinner: Saturday Night Live: "Justin Timberlake"Nominees: The Colbert Report: "#10004," The Daily Show: "#19018," Jimmy Kimmel Live: "#13-1810," Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: "#799"
Variety/Talk/News/Sports SpecialWinner: The 67th Annual Tony AwardsNominees: 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, The 55th Annual Grammy Awards, The 85th Annual Academy Awards, Louis C.K.: Oh My God
Reality ProgramsWinner: 72 Hours: "The Lost Coast"Nominees: The Amazing Race: "Beards in the Wind," The Biggest Loser: "1501," The Hero: "Teamwork," Top Chef: "Glacial Gourmand"
Children's ProgramsWinner: An Apology to ElephantsNominees: A.N.T. Farm, Jinxed, Swindle, Teen Beach Movie
CommercialsWinner: Martin de Thurah (The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down, Hennessy VS/Human Race, Acura MDX 2014)Nominees: Fredrik Bond (Voyage, Heineken; From The Future, Johnny Walker), John X. Carey (Real Beauty Sketches, Dove), Matthijs van Heijningen (Perfect Day, Sony Playstation; #Forty Eight, Verizon), Noam Murro (Basketball, Guinness; Kids, DIRECTV; Mask, Volkswagen)
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Gabriel Olsen/GettyFrom the latest festive release from Brandon Flowers and company to a moving dedication to the late Paul Walker, here's a look at five of the best songs to have been unveiled over the past seven days.Clean Bandit – "Rather Be"Combining the soulful vocals of Jess Glynne with their typically inventive fusion of classical music and classic house, British quartet Clean Bandit also continue their inspired run of videos with the story of a Japanese fan whose daily life is dominated by hallucinations of the band.The Killers – "Christmas In L.A."Once again embracing the holiday spirit with their eighth Christmas single in eight years, the Las Vegas outfit team up with folk-rock outfit Dawes for a melancholic tale of a struggling Hollywood actor forced to spend the big day thousands of miles away from his loved ones.Blood Red Shoes – "The Perfect Mess"The first taster from the duo's fourth album sees lead vocalist Laura-Mary Carter deliver a furious parting shot to a man who's used up all his nine lives on a ferocious slice of garage rock which suggests she's not a woman to be messed with.RZA – "Destiny Bends"Teaming up with soul singer Will Wells, the Wu-Tang Clan star pays a heartfelt tribute to the late Paul Walker with this touching ballad about the times they shared together on the upcoming remake of Luc Besson's District 13.Haim – "Forever (Giorgio Moroder Remix)"Following on from his guest appearance on Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, electro pioneer Giorgio Moroder now stamps his mark on Haim's debut single with an anthemic blend of thumping Italo disco beats, throbbing synths and the odd flashes of his signature vocoder.
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Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has urged fans to cherish their loved ones as he struggles to come to terms with the loss of his Fast Five co-star Paul Walker. The actor was killed in a car accident in California last Saturday (30Nov13) and movie tough guy Johnson poured his heart out about his friend's death in an interview on EW.com earlier this week (begs02Dec13), revealing they bonded over their connections as fathers to daughters on set.
He has now taken to his Instagram.com page to remind fans of the importance of showing friends and family that they are appreciated.
Alongside a photo of himself and Walker, Johnson writes, "Losing a loved one jolts our hearts to the core. It also has a very special way of helping us move forward to live & love as greatly as possible. Hug our loved ones a little tighter. Pray a little stronger. Work a little harder. Smile a little bigger. Life goes on and memories are forever cherished..."
Walker's fellow Fast and Furious franchise stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris have also paid tribute to the late actor in the days since the tragedy.
Meanwhile, photos showing Walker serving as his brother Caleb's best man at a family wedding in October (13) have been obtained Us Weekly magazine. The touching shots, which include one of the siblings posing with their arms around each other, were taken at the Dove Canyon Country Club in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, where Caleb exchanged vows with his girlfriend Stephanie just six weeks before his brother's death.

Hollywood stars and producers have taken to Twitter.com in an outpouring of grief following the death of actor Paul Walker, who was killed in a horrific car crash in California on Saturday (30Nov13). The Fast & Furious star died when the Porsche he was a passenger in smashed into a tree and exploded. The 40 year old and the car's driver both perished.
In the subsequent hours after news broke of his death, dozens of Walker's celebrity pals and ex co-stars reached out to his family to offer their condolences and memories of the likeable actor.
Vin Diesel, who worked with Walker on five Fast & Furious films, writes, "Brother, I will miss you very much. Heaven has gained a new angel. Rest in peace. My brother and I.....we aimed for the stars together....and achieved more than we ever hoped we could with f&f (Fast & Furious)."
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who starred alongside Walker in 2011's Fast Five, writes, "All my strength, love & faith to the Walker family during this heartbreaking time. We find our strength... in his light. Love you brother."
Rapper Ludacris, who stars in the sixth and upcoming seventh installments of the hit franchise, adds, "Your humble spirit was felt from the start, wherever you blessed your presence you always left a mark, we were like brothers & our birthdays are only 1 day apart, now You will forever hold a place in all of our hearts paulwalker legacy will live on forever. R.I.P."
Fast & Furious 7 director James Wan writes, "I am so beyond heartbroken right now. I can't process anything."
Bosses at the franchise's studio, Universal, add, "All of us at Universal are heartbroken. Paul was truly one of the most beloved and respected members of our studio family for 14 years, and this loss is devastating to us, to everyone involved with the Fast and Furious films."
Jessica Alba, who starred opposite Walker in 2005's Into the Blue, writes, "RIPPaulWalker - he was a lovely person - so sweet and grounded. My heart goes out to his family", while his The Skulls co-star Joshua Jackson adds, "Damn. Hard to imagine someone so full of life taken so soon. My thoughts go out to your family. RIP Pauly Walker"
The cast of 1999 teen hit She's All That also remembered the heartthrob fondly. The movie's star Rachael Leigh Cook says, "Paul was a truly good person in a town of questionable characters... A real life tragedy if there ever was one.", and Gabrielle Union writes, "This is awful. Awful. RIPPaulWalker pls (please) pray for his family, friends & fans. We've lost a great, laid back, sweet, cool man & father."
His death comes just days after Walker gave a moving interview with WENN, in which he spoke about how he was enjoying life as a dad to his teenage daughter Meadow since she had moved in with him last year (12).
He said, "She started living with me last year just when I was leaving to go to work on Fast (& Furious 6). It's really kind of tearing on me trying to maintain the balance. She just turned 15 and it's a critical time. I'm big with analogies so I look at it like this big rocket ship and she's on this launching pad.
"I want to get the trajectory right. It's just me and my daughter and I'm gonna be her dad for the rest of our lives so I want it to be cool. I sure as hell don't want to be looking back and go, 'F**k, what if, and I should've been home more'. She's super supportive and is like, 'No, go; this is what you do'. I'm like, 'We've got three years and you're gonna be out of the house. How much longer before you show up with Johnny?'
"We're really honest with each other which is cool. She tells me what her needs are and tries to be a little tougher than I want her to be sometimes. I want her to be more revealing like, 'You're not home enough...' I want her to say those things."

Don't Trust the B in Apt 23/Facebook
You can’t afford to miss Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23. The series has all of the makings of a long-lasting television series. It has a stellar cast including TV darling Krysten Ritter (Veronica Mars, Breaking Bad). It has a groundbreaking pilot that subverts what you expect from a television sitcom. It capitalizes on the success of memes featuring James Van Der Beek and has awesome writing. The cast is comprised mostly of seemingly unlikeable characters that form an ensemble you’d die to be part of.
The series begins with June (Dreama Walker) walking in on her roommate Chloe (Ritter) having sex with her fiancé...on her birthday cake. We find out June lost her job and apartment so she meets Chloe on Craigslist. Chloe is an amazing party girl who is best friends with actor James Van Der Beek. What June doesn’t know is that Chloe is a sociopath, with a stalker, Robin (Liza Lapira), a pervy next-door-neighbor named Eli (Michael Blaiklock), and a hostile relationship with James’s assistant Luther (Ray Ford).
The show is downright irreverent but it still blends with reality in such a delightful way. Sure, June is obnoxious and burdened by trying to find work during a major recession. And yet, Chloe capitalizes on her ability to hustle through New York City with a magical get out of jail free card. The writing is also genius level and rivals series like 30 Rock and Community.
Once you watch this series you will see how you were robbed. There was a lot of traction on the pilot and a lot of buzz around the series. However, due to scheduling errors the series never was able to grow an audience. Also, this is a series with balls. Nothing is off limits and yet it doesn’t rely on offensive humor or cheap jokes. It is just wholeheartedly funny and obscenely well-written.
Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23 is one of your all-time favorite shows...but you have to see it first. Luckily, both of the short seasons of the series are available on Netflix.
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